


Lessons with Bladed Weapons

by KyrianKreep



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-22
Updated: 2011-08-22
Packaged: 2017-10-22 23:05:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/243568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KyrianKreep/pseuds/KyrianKreep
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There is one shinobi rule which Kakashi has yet to learn... And he's determined not to.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lessons with Bladed Weapons

**Author's Note:**

> I found this lying around in an old harddrive from a couple of years back, awaiting slight editing but otherwise finished.  
> Enjoy :)

Bladed weapons glided through the air in every direction as their owner twisted and flipped in mid-air. Every one of them hit their targets in the dead-centre of the bulls eye... And that was while the teenager throwing them was blindfolded. His power was often underestimated by the village, who only saw his father when they looked at him. The blonde man watching from a nearby tree knew that the very reason his student wore a mask was to escape the painful memories insensitive strangers dug up when they compared his appearance to that of the older, dead Hatake.

Minato waited until Kakashi’s hands were free of weapons to flare his chakra. He knew better than to step out into the open without warning when the younger shinobi was in that sort of mood, and to presume he had completely exhausted his stash. Sight or no sight, Kakashi was dangerous, and if he felt threatened when he was riled up enough to be training so hard in the first place even Minato's ability to move in a flash couldn't help him. He wasn't surprised when he immediately found himself pinned to the tree with two kunai. Impressive, he thought - neither so much as scratched him, but managed to catch in his clothing. Perfect aim.

"Damn, more sewing to do," he sighed, not trying to resist. Kakashi sagged, pulling his hitai-ate up enough to reveal his natural eye.

"Sensei," he greeted, "It will give you some practice, at least,"

He was talking formally. That was definitely a sign of his agitation. Minato tensed his arms and pulled them forward to dislodge the kunai, ripping his sleeves in the process. "I always forget how perfect your aim can be. Any reason for doing it blindly?"

Kakashi shrugged one shoulder. "I rely too much on Obito. It would be irresponsible for me to not be prepared,"

"Not one of Gai's challenges, I hope? I worry for him, when I see him cartwheeling around after being defeated," the blonde sighed, sitting down by his student's side. They settled into a peaceful silence, the younger of the two collecting his weapons from the painted circles on the surrounding tree trunks. Once he had them all, he sat by his superior, replacing them all to his pouches.

If it were anybody but Minato watching, they would have been disturbed by just how precisely he organized them all. Two to his thigh, one to his ankle, three to his chest, one to his thigh... It seemed like a random pattern, but it was always the same, and he always had every blade pushed into its container to the same invisible line facing the same way with the same materials in the same places. Kakashi was most definitely a creature of habit. Minato was the same, and had added a kunai of his own to the pile while the other was facing away. If he hadn't remembered its position in the pile, he wouldn't know which it was. Yet Kakashi held it out to him casually as soon as he reached it, returning to his work as soon as it was removed from his grasp. Minato had given up asking him how he did it. All he would get was a shrug.

"Shouldn't you be in the office?" Kakashi asked after exactly three lots of seven minutes of silence.

"Shouldn't you be in a jounin meeting?" Minato countered.

"Who's to say I haven't already been and gone?" the younger replied, never looking up.

"Since when did jounin meetings last less than two hours, hm?" Minato raised his brows. He knew he sounded like a nagging parent, but Kakashi was like family to him. He was going through a tough time. Sometimes, people needed a firm hand to guide them in the right direction. Kakashi sighed, looking up with a cold eye.

"I need another mission, sensei. I cannot stay still," he said seriously, lips thinned into a line under his mask. Minato looked away again.

"No," he said. Kakashi looked shocked, then annoyed. Minato cut off his protest, "You need to wind down. There are shinobi out there who are addicted to combat. They're insane. They all have to be permanently removed from the roster with weekly psych checks. I am not going to let you become one of them, Kakashi,"

"I am not about to become one of them, sensei. I need the money," Kakashi lied.

"You have plenty of money as it is," Minato pointed out, "If you're that desperate you can have a D-rank, but nothing more,"

"Sensei-"

"No, Kakashi," Minato said firmly, looking straight into his eye, "You're on mandatory leave for a minimum of two weeks. I do not want to find you overworking yourself here, either. There's a shinobi rule they don't teach as much as they should, you know,"

"I know all of the shinobi rules," Kakashi said, narrowing his eye on his beloved teacher. Minato smiled at him sadly.

"I don't think you do. The most important rule of all, Kakashi, is to know when to stand down. Besides, you shouldn't abandon your team in a time of need, should you?"

"The war is over, sensei, and I don't have a team," was the firm reply, hurt flashing through that dark eye.

"You have me," Minato corrected, "And I definitely need your help,"

Kakashi scoffed, turning away. The older man sighed quietly to himself, fingering a blade of grass at his side.

"I'll need your help even more in a few months time. I need to know I have someone to rely on to be my backup," he admitted. Kakashi turned to him with a frown.

"What are you talking about?" he asked slowly, suspicious. "You don't take missions,"

"Not on the field, Kakashi," Minato smiled, "I need to know that my child will always have someone to look over them, even if I'm not here to do so myself,"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Bladed weapons tumbled through the air in every direction. None of them came close to hitting the tree straight ahead from their determined owner, let alone inside the crudely painted target. Not surprising, when an expert saw the bent metal, the centre of its balance was all wrong. The man watching from a tree above doubted even he could hit a target dead-on with one of those things. He frowned, jumping from his branch and landing in a silent crouch. He walked up behind the young boy whose frustration was mounting with every failed attempt, assessing the posture and stance he was using to throw with. Pulling out a kunai of his own stock, Kakashi stopped just behind the little blonde, lifted his hand, and sent one blade effortlessly into the centre of the wobbly red circle between the boys throws.

Recognising another presence, the boy whirled around with his hands in a defensive position, staring up at the masked stranger. His eyes held a jaded fear which they shouldn't know at his tender age. Kakashi crouched, and decided to break another rule. He slid his porcelain face up to the top of his head, smiled, and slipped the fabric one down to his chin.

"Pass me your weapons," he asked, trying to sound as friendly as he could. Blue eyes narrowed.

"No," he said firmly. Kakashi chuckled.

"Wise boy," he praised, "Never let a potential enemy disarm you. But I'm not going to hurt you; I just want to check to see which weapons you're using,"

"Kunai," the four year-old said, frowning in a 'well, duh!' way. Kakashi smiled, making sure to include his lips in the movement and not just his eye.

"I can see that. But you see, some squirrels have been tampering with kunai lately and putting them back in the box at the shop," he said with upmost sincerity, "They've been stealing some of the metal from them to help crack open nuts. I just want to make sure your kunai haven't been tampered with. It wouldn't do for a shinobi to go out on the field with faulty weaponry, would it? How about we swap. You take one of my kunai, and I'll look at yours, okay?"

The boy nodded hesitantly after a moment, holding out a grubby little hand. Kakashi placed the handle of a new blade into it from his chest pouch, and carefully took the small pocket from the floor next to the blonde. He picked one out, and frowned at it. He ran one finger along the flat edge, finding it bumped and nicked and crooked in an irreparable way.

"Have the squirrels messed with them?" the boy asked, frowning back. He looked perfectly serious and concerned. Kakashi looked up and smiled.

"Yes, it looks like they have," he replied, taking four more of his new weapons in one hand. He emptied the torn pouch, and carefully replaced the scrap metal with some of Konoha's best quality kunai in an order his fingers knew well. He held it back out. "Here. These are squirrel-proof, you have my word. Try throwing one at the target,"

The blonde head bobbed up and down, and he turned back around, adjusting his hold automatically before sending it flying. It thumped into the bark just outside the circle, and his eyes went wide. He turned back around with a large grin, jutting a hand towards the tree.

"Didja see that?! I did it, dattebayo! I hit it! They can't call me a no good idiot now, cuz I can throw! Dattebayo!" he said, virtually jumping up and down with the pride he had found in himself. Kakashi smiled, and ruffled his hair. He didn't want to ruin the child's good mood by asking questions.

"Well done, Naruto," he praised. His ears picked up the tuned whistle from the trees, and he sighed. He pulled his fabric mask back up. "I need to go, I'm afraid. You keep on practicing, and never go out without some of those squirrel-proof kunai, you hear? Stay safe,"

Naruto nodded eagerly, flinging his arms around Kakashi's neck to hug him. A dark eye widened, glancing down at him, before softening. Five kunai might not be enough to protect his sensei's son, but he would make sure that anyone - ninja or civilian alike - who threatened to harm him could consider themselves squirrels in the jaws of a hound.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Bladed weapons, old and worn, were lined up neatly in a set pattern all too familiar to Kakashi's old grey eye. He frowned.

"Naruto," he called curiously, scanning the inside of the drawer again to make sure he wasn't seeing things, "Why do you have five old kunai in your desk?"

"Hm?" the blonde said, glancing up from the papers he held and walking over. He grinned when he saw what his ex-teacher was looking at. "Oh! Those. They're a momento, I guess,"

"What of?" the copy-nin asked, still frowning as he wondered just when Naruto had started ordering his weapons, let alone in the same order as Kakashi himself.

"A man who cared enough about me to give them to me," the young man answered fondly, reaching over to straighten one of the knives so that it was perfectly parallel to the others. "My old ones were even more twisted than Ton Tons tail, they were so bad. They couldn't have done anything to help me,”

Kakashi's mouth had curved into a slow smile, remembering.

“In fact, I'd've probably been killed the very day I got these if I still had my old ones,"

He looked up, shocked. "What?"

"Yeah... Let's just say some squirrels wanted to steal some of the metal to crack their nuts open with. These kunai are squirrel-proof, though, so I got away with no more than a couple of cracked ribs and some scratches." the tan man laughed, sending the former ANBU a look, "Honestly, sensei, you really have been crazy for years,"

Kakashi blinked. So Naruto had worked out that it was him, then. It took him long enough; and here Kakashi had been laughing about it to himself. Naruto had wanted to see beneath his mask for years, yet he had already. His eye crinkled.

"You believed it, didn't you? If I'd told you the truth, you would have hit me with those tiny little fists of yours," he pointed out, "Speaking of hitting... I have some squirrel-proof kunai of my own that could do with being tested. Mission?"

"No," Naruto said firmly, rolling his eyes, "Two weeks, Kakashi. I'm not about to have you incapacitated just because there are some squirrels running loose. If you ask me for a mission one more time, I am so assigning Gai to guard your ass,"

Kakashi sighed. "I guess I still need to learn when to back down, then,"

"Hell yeah you do," Naruto agreed, "I need you too much to have you abandon me now,"

Kakashi frowned thoughtfully. "Have you gotten someone pregnant?"

"What?!" Naruto squealed, eyes wide and cheeks dusted pink, "Why would you go and say that? Of course I haven't!"

"Oh," Kakashi said thoughtfully, "The last time I had a man say that to me, he was going to be a father. He was a Hokage too, actually. Are you sure you're not going to have a kid? You know how I am with patterns-"

Kakashi chuckled when Naruto scrambled out of the room, white robe trailing behind him like a cape and hat almost slipping off before he caught it and pushed it back into place.

When it came to Kakashi, some patterns tended to stay intact. Others, though, he fought with everything in his power.

He would keep the promise he had made to Minato twenty-one years earlier. Even now when the child he had sworn to protect out-ranked him, he would not back down.


End file.
